HUSBAND GETS 15 TO LIFE FOR BORDER OFFICER’S SLAYING

15 years to life for stabbing customs officer who was mother of their young sons

CHULA VISTA 
A man who fatally stabbed his estranged wife in front of the couple’s two young sons was sentenced Thursday to 15 years to life in prison.

Jesus Arteaga Garcia, 31, was convicted in February of second-degree murder and two misdemeanor counts of child endangerment in connection with the slaying of Maribel Arteaga, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.

The 28-year-old victim was two months pregnant in December 2009 when she was killed.

Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Ana España sentenced Garcia to the maximum prison term available by law, given the charges for which he was convicted.

Outside the courtroom, one of the victim’s two younger sisters said she believed Arteaga deserved to be convicted of first-degree murder, and therefore a harsher sentence, but she said she and her family were glad to put the court case behind them.

“We just want to move on at this point,” said Melissa Castillo, 27, who called her deceased sibling her role model and best friend.

Maribel Arteaga was stabbed to death Dec. 9, 2009, at her Chula Vista apartment where she lived with the two boys, then ages 4 and 6. She and her estranged husband had been involved in a dispute over visitation with the children before the attack.

She was able to identify her assailant to a Chula Vista police officer, who recorded the conversation before she died at a hospital.

The defendant fled to Mexico, where he hid with relatives for more than a year. In January 2011, he was arrested by Mexican authorities who were working with a fugitive task force from the U.S.

He was extradited to San Diego County later that year.

During the emotional hearing, Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Ocain said the defendant had shown no remorse for what he had done.

The victim’s mother, Maribel Beltran, called the defendant a “coward” who had mistreated and humiliated her eldest daughter. When the defendant killed his wife, Beltran said, he sacrificed the happiness of his children.

“You ruined their lives, taking their mother that they needed so much,” Beltran said.

She told the judge that her daughter had always hoped that her husband would change, but that never happened. Instead, he called her worthless and told her he didn’t love her.

“And now I ask, what did you gain by killing her?” she said.

Juliana Humphrey, the deputy public defender who represented Arteaga, said she and her client hoped the victim’s family could move forward once the criminal proceedings had concluded, and she wished them “all the peace that they can find for the rest of their lives.”

Jesus Arteaga apologized in the courtroom, saying he loved and supported his wife, and had hoped before the killing that he would be able to put his family back together again.

“I never wanted this to happen,” he said, adding that he had wanted the best for his children. “Thanks to me, they don’t have their mother.”